Screen/Society--Reel Women Directors of the Middle-East [Turkey]--"Mustang"

Film Screening: "Mustang" (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015, 97 min, France/Germany/Turkey, in Turkish w/ English subtitles, Color, Blu-Ray) / Early summer in a village in Northern Turkey. Five free-spirited teenaged sisters splash about on the beach with their male classmates. Though their games are merely innocent fun, a neighbor passes by and reports what she considers to be illicit behavior to the girls' family. The family overreacts, removing all "instruments of corruption," like cell phones and computers, and essentially imprisoning the girls, subjecting them to endless lessons in housework in preparation for them to become brides. As the eldest sisters are married off, the younger ones bond together to avoid the same fate. The fierce love between them empowers them to rebel and chase a future where they can determine their own lives in Deniz Gamze Ergüven's debut, a powerful portrait of female empowerment. /-- Oscar Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year in Academy Awards (2016)! /-- Nominee for Best Motion Picture - Foreign Language in Golden Globes (2016)! /-- Winner of 6 César Awards (2016)! / "Raw, funny and incredibly moving." - Cath Clarke, Time Out / "Ergüven isn't peddling blind optimism so much as a realism animated by the belief that freedom-far from being inevitable-must be fought for. That it will be fought for." -- Lenika Cruz, The Atlantic / Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU9JAN8LtIk